The New Up
by nicnac918
Summary: After his famous injury Up is like a completely new person, and Taz is not so sure she likes the new Up.


Up's injury was something like a divisor in his life, even more so for Taz than it was for Up himself. She began thinking of him in terms of "Old Up," who was all human, and "New Up," who was half robot. After she finally got a chance to meet New Up, she found that the whole half-robot thing really didn't make as big a difference as she thought, and she forgot about it completely, more often than not. New Up, however, was so completely different from Old Up that the nicknames stuck. And the more she learned about New Up the less Taz thought she liked him.

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Old Up was the toughest son of a bitch she ever met, and New Up was soft and a bit pathetic. She was certain he was due to get killed any minute, and even after he killed those mosquitos, she remained half-convinced he was a dead man walking. It had nearly broken her when Old Up died and damn that _idiota_ for trying to put her through that again.

XXXXXX

The first time that New Up, or any version of Up, truth be told, told her he loved her she very nearly stabbed Krayonder again and she really did refuse to talk to any of the other crewmembers for two days. They were leaving Bug World to go back to G.L.E.E. headquarters and he had gathered the whole crew together to tell them how proud he was of them for the good job they had done, and for uncovering Dr. Space-Claw's evil plotting. He concluded the speech by telling them that he loved them all, forcing Taz to suppress the desire to punch him square in the jaw. Instead she stalked off to the gym and went at the punching bag for what felt like hours. She cycled through picturing all the members of the crew, punching them over and over for all the things they had managed to do to piss her off. The most vicious punches, however, she saved for when she imagined herself standing there, for ever daring to think that Up saving her from those mosquitos meant something.

XXXXXX

Jealousy was not something she had to deal with with Old Up. The man had hardly had any friends and any girls that tried to flirt with him could count themselves lucky if he just ignored them. New Up, though, was friends with, and loved even, damn near everyone. He still never flirted back with any of those girls, but he was unfailingly kind to them. Old Up and Taz's feelings for each other may have been platonic (well Up's had been anyways), but that didn't change the fact that she and him were together and belonged that way. Now, Up saw her just the same as everyone, and could belong with just about anyone.

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Taz had been surprised when the Rear Admiral had told her of her new promotion. Due to the G.L.E.E.'s turmoil at Dr. Space-Claw's recent removal as head, her own role in uncovering the treachery, and Commander Up's enthusiastic recommendation, she was being bumped straight up to the rank of Commander. The promotion itself didn't come as a shock to her, but Up's apparent insistence that she be promoted up and off his team did. Well fine, if he didn't want to work with Taz anymore she certainly wouldn't waste any of her time by spending it with him. Taz stayed awake all through that night, dry-eyed, watching Karate Kid over and over.

XXXXXX

Taz had been successfully avoiding him for a little over a week before Up finally cornered her.

"Now Taz I know you're mad at me," Up said cautiously, looking like he was afraid she was about to punch him, and rightfully so. "But if you don't talk to me about how you feel, I can't fix it."

Taz laughed and it sounded bitter and cold and not at all like she was in agony just looking at him. "You want to know how I feel?"

Up drew back. "Of course I do Taz." She wanted nothing more than to claw his eyes out, because without them she was sure he wouldn't be able to look so wounded. "I'd like to apologize, but I'm not sure what I did wrong."

And oh, didn't that just make her want to hit him. She crossed her arms instead, determined to not let him see how emotional he was making her. "It's fine. You don't need to apologize if you don't want to be on the same team anymore."

"Is this about your promotion?" he asked and gave a little half chuckle, like he thought it was some kind of joke. Another look at her expression sobered him up pretty quickly though. "It's not that I don't want you to be on my crew anymore, but they asked if I thought you deserved to be a Commander and you do. Besides I wanted you to get that promotion because," he paused to take a deep breath and draw himself up before he continued, "because I love you, Taz."

She refused to let her heart flutter because she wanted that to mean something and absolutely refused to cry because it didn't. "I know Up. You love me and Bug and Specs and Tootsie and even that dumb bitch February. You love everyone."

Knowing her composure couldn't take much more, Taz turned around to leave, but didn't get more than a few steps away before Up caught up to her (damn her short legs) and grabbed her by the shoulders. "Dammit Taz, that's not what I meant. What I'm trying to say is… shit." And before she knew what he was doing, he had turned her around and kissed her.

The kiss was over as soon as it started, leaving Taz standing there in shock as Up nervously ran his fingers through his hair. "Sorry about that, I guess I got a little carried away. Umm… I'll just go now…"

Suddenly Taz couldn't think of anything she wanted less than for Up to walk away right then. So, having always firmly believed that actions spoke louder than words, she grabbed him by the shirt collar and kissed him thoroughly. And Taz couldn't help but think that maybe she did like New Up after all.


End file.
